SLU law school Interim Dean Tom Keefe to donate salary back to law school

Belleville trial lawyer Tom Keefe Jr., who accepted an offer Aug. 8 to serve as dean of the Saint Louis University School of Law, announced in a letter to students Monday that he would donate his salary back to the law school.

Keefe, his father, four brothers and two of his children attended SLU’s School of Law, and he has supported the law school with two endowed professorships and a scholarship. Several of his nieces and nephews and other relatives also have graduated from the law school, he said.

He did not disclose the amount of his salary and donation, but the median 2010 law school dean salary was $278,454, according to a report by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

“My wife, Rita, is my closest confidant who proves to me every day that women are smarter than men,” Keefe wrote in the letter to students and faculty. “We have agreed to do this job for free. My salary will be donated to our school. I am open to suggestions where.”

Keefe told the Business Journal the money will go toward either benefiting the students or the constituents of the law school's free legal clinics.

“I was trying to make a statement to the students and the faculty that really I don’t have any skin in this game other than to make the law school a better place for these kids and give these kids a better chance to get a job,” he said.

He said law students at SLU and across the country face the challenge of paying off student debt although there aren’t enough high-paying jobs for all law school graduates. “These kids are coming out, and they’ve got good hearts, but they owe a lot of dough,” he said.

In his letter he said, “It’s too expensive to get a legal education, and it’s too hard to find a job to pay for that education. I get that. I wish I could hire every one of you. We cannot guarantee jobs, but we can work hard to make each of you employable and marketable.”

Keefe also said in an interview that the time has come for cooperation.

“I think what was going on with the law school, this little turf war, is kind of symbolic of what is going on in our country,” he said, referring to the controversy surrounding Clark’s resignation.

A call to the law school seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Manoj Patankar, SLU's vice president for academic affairs, will lead a national search for a new law school dean this fall.